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XLD vs MAX

Winter Charm

Winter Charm

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 31, 2008
804
270
Hey everyone. I just had a quick question... I know lossless formats are... well... lossless...

I was just wondering what the better tool for converting FLAC --> Apple Lossless was. In theory the quality should be the same. Can anyone confirm that they both create proper Lossless files?

I've heard that you can do an MD5 on the original FLAC file, then convert to Apple Lossless, and then convert back to FLAC and check the MD5 to compare the two files.

If someone could either do this for me really quickly, or teach me how to do it, It would be hugely appreciated. I guess you can say I'm a bit paranoid about quality. :p
 
P

paolo-

macrumors 6502a
Aug 24, 2008
831
1
I wouldn't get too hung up on this. I'm not too familiar with the features and particularities of each but shouldn't a null test be sufficient to verify that they indeed hold the same info?

Sadly I can't really help you with a software to do the batch conversion either.
 
bwhli

bwhli

macrumors 6502a
Jan 9, 2012
557
210
Boston, MA
Winter Charm said:
Hey everyone. I just had a quick question... I know lossless formats are... well... lossless...

I was just wondering what the better tool for converting FLAC --> Apple Lossless was. In theory the quality should be the same. Can anyone confirm that they both create proper Lossless files?

I've heard that you can do an MD5 on the original FLAC file, then convert to Apple Lossless, and then convert back to FLAC and check the MD5 to compare the two files.

If someone could either do this for me really quickly, or teach me how to do it, It would be hugely appreciated. I guess you can say I'm a bit paranoid about quality. :p
Click to expand...

I've used both Max and XLD, but prefer Max. It's easier to use in my workflow, and they produce excellent sounding conversions. No need to fuss over which one is better bit for bit.
 
C

ChrisA

macrumors G5
Jan 5, 2006
12,576
1,692
Redondo Beach, California
Winter Charm said:
Hey everyone. I just had a quick question... I know lossless formats are... well... lossless...

I was just wondering what the better tool for converting FLAC --> Apple Lossless was. In theory the quality should be the same. Can anyone confirm that they both create proper Lossless files?

I've heard that you can do an MD5 on the original FLAC file, then convert to Apple Lossless, and then convert back to FLAC and check the MD5 to compare the two files.

If someone could either do this for me really quickly, or teach me how to do it, It would be hugely appreciated. I guess you can say I'm a bit paranoid about quality. :p
Click to expand...


I'm not 100% sure the MD5 checksums would match. These might be a metadata field that defines (say) the name/version of the software that created the file. The best test would be to bring both files into an editor and subtract them. Anything other than zeroes means there is a problem.

But really. "Losses is Lossless" there is no need to worry about this.

You ask how to compute md5 checksums? Easy the command is "md5" followed by the file name(s)
 
Winter Charm

Winter Charm

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 31, 2008
804
270
ChrisA said:
I'm not 100% sure the MD5 checksums would match. These might be a metadata field that defines (say) the name/version of the software that created the file. The best test would be to bring both files into an editor and subtract them. Anything other than zeroes means there is a problem.

But really. "Losses is Lossless" there is no need to worry about this.

You ask how to compute md5 checksums? Easy the command is "md5" followed by the file name(s)
Click to expand...

Thanks guys. :) I think I'll stick to using Max for now :) but I'll keep both apps, as they seem to be great apps :)
 
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